Operation Homecoming (O/H), the negotiated release of 566 US Servicemen held as prisoners of war (POWs) in Vietnam for as long as nine years, began in February 1973. During the months that followed, enemy forces released 138 Navy, 26 Marine Corps, 77 Army, and 325 Air Force Repatriated POWs (RPWs). As a part of O/H, medical and psychological conditions of all repatriates were documented in the Initial Medical Evaluation Form (IMEF), a 400 page, 29 section, standard protocol. Berg and Richlin (1977) described the procedures and findings of the medical teams that examined and treated Army RPWs at Clark Air Force Base (Republic of the Philippines) and at 8 mainland Army hospitals. Where appropriate, information was also presented concerning symptoms and conditions which occurred during captivity (as described in the history section of the IMEF). Berg and Richlin emphasized documentation of the specific injury and illness diagnoses. The overwhelmingly most common diagnoses in the group were helminthiasis (77%), followed by avitaminoses (55%), hearing impairment (40%), peripheral nerve injury (39%), and malaria (34%). They noted that the consensus of physicians involved in O/H found that the Army RPWs were generally in good health, in fact, much better than the "worst case" actually planned. They also found limited evidence of either neuroses or "premature aging," both of which have been noted among repatriates from previous wars. We were interested in identifying risk factors that predisposed the RPW to various injuries and illnesses. In view of the small sample size of individual diagnoses, we evaluated the effects of captivity from the perspective of ICD9-CM diagnostic categories (i.e., systems level). From this perspective, the relationship between medical conditions observed at repatriation and various risk factors, also recorded in the IMEF, could be analyzed. These risk factors included age at time of captivity, length of captivity (months), length of solitary confinement (weeks), self-reported captivity medical problems, reported torture severity, and subjectively determined weight loss. The purpose of this present study is to look at the relationship between the number of diagnosis at repatriation (i.e., IMEF) and various risk factors. We hypothesized that these risk factors would predict both the grand total of IMEF diagnoses across categories and the presence of any diagnoses within specific categories. This report, which addresses the Army RPWs, is the second in a series of four reports. The first report dealt with Navy RPWs and subsequent reports will be devoted to the Marine Corps and to a combined analysis of all three RPW groups for direct comparison. Methods Data from all 77 Army RPWs recorded in the IMEF were available for analysis. Prior to conducting our analyses, the completeness of the electronic database was verified by referring to individual microfiche copy of the original 400 page IMEF on each repatriate. All available information regarding diagnoses, age at time of captivity, length of capti...
